How to reduce marketplace dependency
Grow the share of bookings that are yours: the customer who comes back, the friend they send, the person who searches your name. The marketplace keeps bringing people who have never heard of you.
By the minhOS team
Already on GetYourGuide and Viator? Keep them.
Updated 11 October 2026
What marketplace dependency is
Marketplace dependency is when most of a tour operator's bookings, reviews and customer relationships sit on a platform the operator does not control, so the platform's commission, ranking and rules shape the operator's year. Reducing it means growing, season by season, the share of bookings that come through your own site, while your marketplace listings keep running.
Keep the listings, because a marketplace does one thing that is hard to do alone: it brings people who have never heard of you. The aim is not zero marketplace bookings; it is a mix you choose. Every customer arrives once as a stranger, through a marketplace, a search or a friend. What matters is where they book the second time, and whether the friend they tell books with you.
First, measure your dependency
Four numbers from last season:
- Bookings share: how many of your bookings came through marketplaces.
- Revenue share: the same in euros received, which differs because of the commission.
- Reviews share: where your reviews live. If they are all on the platform, so is your reputation.
- Customer list: how many of last year's customers you could email today. Marketplace guests you never asked are not on it.
If most of your bookings come through one platform, one change to its ranking or its terms can move your whole year. That is the dependency, in one line.
Seven moves, in order of return
1. A site on your own domain that takes bookings
Not a link in your bio, not a form that ends in a bank transfer, not a page on someone else's platform. Your name, your domain, a page for each trip and a checkout. Every move below needs somewhere to send people that is yours.
2. A direct offer that respects parity
Check for a price-parity clause. Most agreements have one: read yours. If you cannot set a lower price on your own site, make it the better offer: flexible cancellation, a small extra included, a deposit now and the balance later, a private option that exists only on your site. The direct booking should be the obvious choice without being the lower price.
3. Capture every customer, the marketplace ones too
You meet them in person. Ask for the email at the meeting point, with their consent and for a clear reason: the photos you will send, the review request. Read your agreement first; some set terms on how you contact guests outside the platform. If in doubt, ask a lawyer. Every email is a customer who can book direct next time.
4. Bring the second booking to your own site
The review request after the trip points to your own site. The email that says next season's dates are out goes to your list. The friend who asks who they went with hears your name and your domain, not some tour on Viator.
5. Be found for your own name and your own tours
When someone searches your name after a recommendation and finds only the marketplace listing, the marketplace gets the booking and the commission. A page for each tour, a page for each destination, structured data, both languages and your name in the title are the basics of being found in your own right.
6. Trace every link
UTM tags on every link you share, a question at checkout about how they heard of you, analytics on your own site. Without them you cannot tell whether the Instagram post, the hotel partnership or the marketplace brought the direct booking, and you keep spending on the wrong one.
7. Partners on terms you agree in writing
Hotels, guesthouses, other operators, a local shop. A partner who sends you guests for a referral fee you have agreed costs exactly what you agreed, and the customer stays yours. Put it in writing and pay on time.
What ten points of direct share are worth
Illustrative: €40,000 in bookings a year at the same price on every channel; a marketplace commission of 25% in this example; your direct channel (card fees, software, your site) assumed at 5% of direct sales; every direct customer's email captured. Use the figures in your own agreement and your own costs. Amounts in euros.
| Mix, marketplace / direct | Marketplace commission | Direct-channel costs | Total you pay | Customers on your own list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 / 20 | 8,000 | 400 | 8,400 | 20% |
| 50 / 50 | 5,000 | 1,000 | 6,000 | 50% |
| 20 / 80 | 2,000 | 1,600 | 3,600 | 80% |
In this example every ten points moved from marketplace to direct saves €800 a year: €1,000 less commission, €200 more in direct-channel costs. And ten more customers in every hundred end up on a list you can sell to again.
Per seat, on the €99 hike from the pricing guide: sold direct, it contributes €87 (€99 minus €12 per person); through a marketplace at 25% you receive €74.25 and it contributes €62.25. The difference, €24.75 a seat before your own direct-channel costs, is what each seat you bring to your own site is worth.
Where minhOS fits
Your site on your own domain, in Greek and English, with trip pages that carry schema.org TouristTrip data and their prices, and an llms.txt for AI assistants. Direct bookings take a deposit now and the balance later; booking confirmations and payment reminders send themselves, and review requests go out after the trip. UTM, GA4 and shortlinks you set up yourself show which link brought a booking. You can export your bookings, with each customer's name and email, as a spreadsheet. minhOS connects with other marketplaces, including GetYourGuide and Viator. More marketplace connections, newsletters to your list, running ads inside minhOS and one inbox for every customer message are next.
Questions about marketplace dependency
Can I set a lower price on my own site?
Only if your agreement allows it. Most agreements have a parity clause, so read yours first. Where you cannot go lower, be better: cancellation terms, an included extra, a deposit now and the balance later.
How do I get a marketplace customer to book direct next time?
Ask for the email in person, with their consent, send the photos and the review request from your own domain, and put next season's dates in front of them early.
Is it allowed to contact marketplace customers directly?
Read your agreement: it decides, not this guide. Asking a guest you have just guided for an email, with their consent and for a clear reason like sending the photos, is not the same as using the platform's messages to move a booking off it; do not do the second. If in doubt, ask a lawyer.
How long does it take?
Seasons, not weeks. Measure the four numbers once a year and watch which way they move. The listings stay; what changes is how many customers come back to you directly.